“I’m relaxed and I’m ready; this is an opportunity of a lifetime for me to fight on a pay-per-view, in front of so many fans out here in the boxing Mecca. It’s a wonderful fight. I claim that I’m going to win this fight by knockout. Everything was easy for me, so I’m not nervous. This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for and it’s fell right on my lap.”
Los Angeles’ Christopher Lovejoy (19-0, 19 KOs) sits in his hotel room in London, adjusting to his new, temporary time zone and appreciating the finer things at his disposal.
Everything’s been paid for; the food, the accommodation and the flight he caught at short notice. Since landing this past weekend, he hasn’t stopped smiling or interacting with fans via his social media platforms.
On Saturday (October 31), the WBA’s No.15-ranked heavyweight will tackle Doncaster’s Dave Allen on Matchroom’s Oleksandr Usyk vs Dereck Chisora card. The American fighter, aged 36, has arrived – but nobody really knows how he got here. In fact, nobody really knows anything about Lovejoy or his professional career thus far.
The truth is, that when unravelling his journey from college football prospect to jailed Los Angeles street figure, you’re met with a plot twist or two. And yet here he is, joined only by his trainer after another member of the Lovejoy camp ran into issues with a passport.
Photo: Twitter @lovejoyboxing.
Lovejoy, dubbed ‘One Shot’, spoke to Boxing Social about life in LA and his introduction to boxing at age 32. “I was playing football in Division One. Then I went to play Division Two or Three, but that was 10 years before I ever started boxing,” he said. “I was just in the streets, running around, doing a lot of stuff. My mother passed away, I had a baby and I was like, ‘Man, what am I gonna do?’
“I was out there living the street life; I was breaking laws and I went to jail a couple of times. It was never too outrageous, but I’m a late bloomer. I had my fair share of the good and the bad, growing up on the streets of Los Angeles, California. Boxing saved my life, man. It kept me out of jail and it kept me alive. The demands it puts on you are very high, and I know guys that play football or basketball, but boxing is 10 times harder.
“When I was young it was Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield boxing,” Lovejoy explained. “Then, when I was 32 – just four years ago – I thought, ‘I’m gonna try this thing’. The heavyweights weren’t really in shape, so I was thinking, I can beat these dudes. I went for it; I moved to Vegas from LA and I started training with Roger Mayweather. I then moved onto Floyd Mayweather Sr. and he was my coach for a couple of years. He never really taught me the A-Z, it was more training for tune up fights and I moved on.”
It’s those fights that are the bone of contention for many. All 19 of Lovejoy’s explosive victories have come in Mexican venues, fighting unknown opponents with predominantly negative records.
In the last 24 months, he’s found himself ranked as high as 10th with the WBA, citing mild outrage amongst the sport’s participants and media figures. Who is Christopher Lovejoy and what has he achieved?
He told Boxing Social that the reason for his lack of improved opposition was “high risk, low reward”. The bigger names backed by affluent promoters weren’t willing to give him a chance. Even if he toppled the division’s prominent figures fairly, or if he was knocked out cold in a single round, the headlines wouldn’t feature his name.
“There’s no film – is he a flop? Will he run through the division? Nobody knows,” teased the Los Angeles native. “The opponents I’ve fought are relatively easy, because I have no amateur experience. I had to fight some guys that would give me experience – but this is my first real fight outside of Mexico. I made the commitment, I lost a bit of weight and I’m at 19-0, ranked by a world governing body. That’s how I started.
“I’m glad Dave Allen took up the challenge, he’s a warrior and he’s not scared of me. A lot of people say he’s going to win and I’m just a big fat guy, but I’ve been in with good guys in the gym. I reached out to them [Matchroom]. I got on there and I talked my stuff. They got back to me immediately and he said, ‘You want this fight or not? Because it can happen’. I said, ‘Cool – let’s make it happen then’. The next day, I was on my flight out.”
It seems unfair to accuse Lovejoy of dodging challenges, given this significant, high profile gamble. A novice boxer, making progress without the support of a powerful promoter or management team should be applauded – but there’s every possibility the mask could slip this weekend. It’s fair to assume that Lovejoy doesn’t know much about Allen, either. But that’s boxing.
His private messages on Instagram – shared by the fighter himself – have included a mixture of comical, colourful insults and thinly veiled support, but the unbeaten prospect is soaking up every second of it. This is “life changing,” he admitted, sharing the bill and the occasion with popular names such as Oleksandr Usyk and Dereck Chisora.
Lovejoy told Boxing Social, “I don’t even have any real support from the people I grew up with. They don’t know how I got here. They’re wondering if I’ve even got a real fight. It doesn’t bother me, negative or positive. I’m from LA, Hollywood and then Las Vegas – there’s a lot of stuff going on. Out here, I’m like a celebrity!
“I was going back-and-forth to Tijuana, and out there you’re in small rooms for a couple of dollars. It’s real dangerous in those areas and you’re doing everything on your own. Over here? It’s a dramatic change. They picked me up from the airport, I’ve got a blessed room, there’s free food. It might not seem like much, but for me, I’m getting to feel like, ‘This is what it’s all about’. I’m around these boxers, these stars; it’s big for me.”
From the violent streets of LA to the perilous, dingy boxing venues of Tijuana, he’d already come a long way. But between speaking to Lovejoy and the completion of his fight on Saturday evening, two questions are left floating and unanswered. The visiting fighter had asked them both, and it didn’t appear clear whether he knew the answer himself yet. “… is he a flop? Will he run through the division? Nobody knows.”
Main image: Twitter @lovejoyboxing